Composting is a natural decaying process in which organic material such as leaves, grass clippings, sticks, limbs, food detritus, animal waste, straw, and hay are converted into humus by naturally occurring microorganisms. Leaves and grass clippings are especially desirable products as leaves contain large amounts of carbon and grass contains large amounts of nitrogen—both of which are essential elements for fostering healthy and robust plant growth.
Composting is a fairly easy process that involves gathering the above-cited products and soil, which contains the microorganisms, into a large pile and then simply allowing the microorganisms to naturally decompose the organic material. One by-product of this process is heat energy, and as the process continues, the dissipation of waste heat creates a warm, seething environment within the pile that both stimulates the production of more microorganisms and furthers the decomposition process along thereby creating nutrient-rich humus.
Several factors are determinative of the quality of the humus produced through the composting process. While a compost pile can be started in one's backyard, beside a garden or adjacent a supply shed or barn, careful attention should be given to the location of the compost pile. Outdoor compost piles run the risk of being vitiated by inclement weather, especially by wet and rainy weather. In addition, outdoor compost piles can easily become the target of various rodents and scavengers. Furthermore, the primary problem with composting for any scale of operation is the odor emitted by the pile. Also, the leakage or leachate (a watery by-product of composting) must be contained and controlled to meet numerous local and state environmental regulations. Moreover, without daily monitoring, extraneous elements, such as debris and garbage carried by the wind, can find their way into the compost pile and degrade and impair the process of decomposition or the quality of the humus produced. In addition, the pile (notwithstanding the location) should be periodically turned over thereby exposing all of the compost pile to ambient oxygen and preventing any part or portion of the pile from becoming moisture-saturated—a condition that impedes and prevents the circulation of air within the pile and greatly diminishes the decomposition process. For simple backyard compost piles, the periodic turning can be accomplished by a shovel or pitchfork. However, for larger piles, other, usually mechanical means are required as the compost pile becomes too compact and heavy for manual turning over. Thus, the prior art discloses a variety of composting methods and devices to overcome the above problems and produce high quality humus.
For example, the H. T. Cobey patent (U.S. Pat. No. 3,369,797) discloses an apparatus that includes a straddling frame for periodically turning compost and then depositing the compost in windrows for further processing.
The H. T. Cobey patent (U.S. Pat. No. 3,606,265) discloses a fragmentizing apparatus with a vertically mounted drum that rotates about a vertical axis, with the drum including shearing projections, such as teeth, that pulverize agricultural material fed to the apparatus.
The Terry patent (U.S. Pat. No. 4,042,219) discloses a rotatable drum having a cylindrical internal space and extending through the internal space is a shaft having vanes so that as material enters the internal space through apertures on the drum surface, the material strikes the vanes so that after several drum revolutions organic waste material is converted into compost.
The Wilson patent (U.S. Pat. No. 4,060,945) discloses an improved compost bin that has a perforated tunnel member formed immediately beneath the compost bin so that air can freely circulate from the tunnel member to the bin thereby providing continuous air circulation and enhancing the rate of decomposition and the quality of the composted material.
The Roman patent (U.S. Pat. No. 4,396,292) discloses a windrow-type composting apparatus that includes a frame supported by a plurality of drive wheels, and elongate paddles mounted to the frame for confronting a row of biodegradable material and progressively moving the material to an adjacent row.
The Long patent (U.S. Pat. No. 5,190,572) discloses a composting method and device that includes a plurality of rectangular-shaped stackable sub units with each sub unit comprising four interlocking double walled plastic panels.
The Shain patent (U.S. Pat. No. 5,429,945) discloses a composter that includes a hollow container having apertures arranged thereon for the circulation therethrough of air and moisture, and an upper cone and a lower cone, both of which have apertures thereon, wherein the upper cone gravitationally descends toward the lower cone as the volume of organic matter is reduced through decomposition thereby enhancing the efficient decomposition of the organic matter.
Nonetheless, despite the ingenuity of the above devices, there remains a need for an easily portable and towable composting system wherein the organic material can be mechanically transferred between decomposition chambers for enhancing the creation of the composted material, and which can accommodate electronic monitoring equipment and can be sized to accommodate various markets.